Remembering those lost in combat

Written by Vincent Cable and published in Informer on Mon 6th Nov 2006

This coming weekend, we commemorate the British servicemen and women who have died in conflict. I shall, as usual, attend ceremonies at local churches, the synagogue and at Radnor Gardens, Twickenham, with the British Legion. I sense that despite the growing distance from the two world wars, the public now feel more, not less, emotionally involved.

One major reason is that Britain is involved in two major conflicts (in Iraq and Afghanistan) with a steadily rising death toll. Last week, the defence minister told me in parliament that in addition to the 120 British troops killed in Iraq, 60 a month are being invalided out with mental illness arising from combat. Many will never fully recover. When I was a child, the surviving 'shell-shocked' victims of the First World War were an object of pity and curiosity. We are producing more, albeit with a different name.

The British casualties are serious but small relative to the Americans and the vast numbers of Iraqi dead - perhaps half a million. The continuing mess, now approaching a virtual civil war, leads many to question our continued presence there. My party colleagues and I opposed the war from the outset but our troops cannot simply, now, leave immediately. We should nonetheless be aiming to leave soon, within months not years. Even the army high command is now planning for withdrawal.

The death sentence on Saddam Hussein adds to the pressures. I feel no sympathy for the man: a psychopath of monstrous proportions. But hanging him will certainly raise the level of violence. Against this is the risk that he could be liberated from prison if pardoned. On balance I feel the latter is the lesser risk. Either way we are being sucked into a deepening, bitter, conflict.